Blind Dating or Wisdom? Agent Match Up

[cathschaffstump]

I wrote to Nathan Bransford just to get it out of the way. I had my rejection in hand in five minutes. As I mentioned, I expected one from him, and one from Ellenberg, if I get a reply from Ellenberg in two weeks at all. BTW, manzabar, I forgot to mention that Ellenberg is John Scalzi's agent. I know how you feel about him!

I don't necessarily expect a rejection from my next query, Kathleen Bransford, who is both a fantasy and a young adult agent. I feel my chances are more on an even keel there. Those who have corresponded with her have good things to say.

***

You know, what is interesting about using a tool like Query Tracker is that you really can research agents thoroughly, and since I'm not approaching this from a desperation angle (I'm determined to find an agent with a good fit) I've easily ruled out agents that have been rude to others often, weird, philosophically unaligned (can you see Substance being represented by a fundamentalist Christian?), or who aren't shopping for my genre.

I would like an agent, but not at any cost. It's like considering a hire from this angle as well. If I get a bad vibe, or a place doesn't feel suitable, I'm not hooking up.

***

The slush pile is hardly a reality yet. I've searched and found 216 agents. Thirty of them do not accept unreferred writers. That gives me 186, of which I've discarded 5 and queried 9. Two are still out there. Seven are nos. That gives me a whole 172 agents left to query. That could keep me busy for a bit.

So, the plan is first AAR/email agents. Then AAR/snail mail. Why? Ease, pretty much. I'd also like an ecologically friendly work place if I can get it. Then nonAAR/email. Then nonAAR/snail mail. Pretty straightforward.

Will I do the slush pile if all this comes to naught? Realistically, all could come to naught. I probably will. I could sit on the manuscript, or I could try for the longshot. I'll have the rest of my life to sit on the manuscript, and if I have a book deal in hand, it might leverage an agent.

All right. Enough of this for today. Back to the students, the emails, and the planning.

Catherine

(to quote Donkey from Shrek: Pick me! Pick me!)

Comments

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

it is half tongue in cheek but the three rejections in one day had me back offand thik' uh-oh..."
i thin ki'm the only one who sounds al lfanatic and agressive about it. i'm wodnering how i coudl get an unbiassed view of this. it's jsut weird hwne yo useeh ow osmeone believes i nthe story they write and whe nthey show you snippets the yactually ARE that kidn of good as i n'wow. what anice cool breeze' kidn of good
and the none after the other jsut goes nope. i think it's because i have no knowledge whatoever of this business so the firstthingi call out is 'it's unfair!"
waittill i finish a boo kand shop it around. i'll probably be ver gratefu lthat i follow this journal.

[cathschaffstump.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that it's not the quality of the book. You're right. It's probably a good book.

It's a question of whether they think they are the right agent to handle the book, or if the concept interests them. It's all subjective.

I think that one of the reasons it's so hard to break into publishing is that there are many people just like you--writers who have written good books. Which book do you back? The one that captures your (as the agent's) imagination.

I need you to be my agent. You believe in me. I want an agent who believes in me as much as you do, and I'm willing to look until I find that person.

Catherine

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

that's agood one. i nsoem cases it' sems to be amatter of bulls-eye. i mea when yo uread hary ptoter you can hardl ybelieve that lie kfifty agents first werne't itnerested until oen said 'hey, this soudsn cool'.

i don'tthink i'd be agodo agent. if ihad the papers at al lthat is. i'd be too eage rto get eveyroen's story out so\\andi cna't be objective. remember beta readgn in fanfic world? i'd promised to check someoen's fic over once and i stayedu ptill three readign it and only then thinking 'shit. i wassupposed to keep track of errors and continuity glitches etc'. i was too caught up in the story. adn part of me thinks it coudl be because this person just didn't need any more beta reads or because i don't use ther ight reading track to proofread properly.